Six Months in Sudan
CBC Books | | Posted: January 9, 2019 11:33 PM | Last Updated: January 9, 2019
James Maskalyk
In 2007, James Maskalyk set out for the contested border town of Abyei, Sudan, a doctor newly recruited by Médecins Sans Frontières, his days were spent treating malnourished children, coping with a measles epidemic and watching for war. Worn thin by the struggle to meet overwhelming needs with few resources, he returned home six months later more affected by the experience, the people and the place, than he had anticipated.
Six Months in Sudan is the story of the doctors, nurses and countless volunteers who leave their homes behind to ease the suffering of others, and it is the story of the people of Abyei who suffer its hardship because it is the only home they have. With great hope and insight, Maskalyk illuminates a distant place and chronicles the toll of war on one community, one man, and the cost of it to all of us. (From Anchor Canada)
From the book
I decided that this book should start at the end. It is the place I am trying most to understand.
This is it. I am standing in a field watching sparks from a huge bonfire float so high on hot drafts of air that they become stars. It is autumn in upstate New York, and the night is dark and cool. Wedding guests huddle together, white blankets loose over their shoulders. They murmur, point at the fire, then at sparks.
I am standing by myself, swirling warming wine. A man to whom I had been introduced that night, a friend of the bride, rekindles our conversation. He is talking about an acquaintance, a nurse, who worked during an Ebola outbreak in the Congo years before. He recounts her story of how, after days of watching people die of the incurable virus, she and her team decided that if there was nothing to offer those infected, no treatment, no respite, they would give them a bath. They put on goggles and masks, taped their gloves to their gowns, and cleaned their sick patients.
Before he can go on, I stop him. I can't talk about this.
From Six Months in Sudan by James Maskalyk ©2010. Published by Anchor Canada.